Maturing Gracefully

NOTE: This week we are studying 1 Peter 2:1-12. Remember the four steps of the Devotional Method for Bible Study? Read this passage every day (it can be found here,
then:
1. Pray for insight on how to apply the passage
2. Meditate on the verses or passage you have decided to study
3. Write out an application – personal, practical, measurable and achievable
4. Memorize a key verse from your passage

Each day the devotion will address a concept in Peter's text. Today

Read Philippians 3:10-15

Context: Paul has been talking about his ideal background as a Jew and how it has been worthless in his new life.

Text:

10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (NIV)

Taken from www.biblegateway.com

Peter and Paul both talk about the need for us to become spiritually mature. What does that really mean? Doug and I have been Christians for about 13 years, but some days I don't feel any more mature than I did early in my Christian walk. I don't seem to know lots of scripture, it takes me a long time to find specific passages about a topic, I'm not satisfied with my prayer life, and I continue to find some way to sin on a daily basis. I've talked to people in their eighties who have been Christians all of their lives, and it's discouraging to find that they feel the same way.

Yet, if I compare myself today to who I was back then, I can see that I have made significant progress. My daily habits have changed, the questions I have are very different, and I find that I rely much more on God on a daily basis.

In another text, Paul says that maturity is attaining the full measure of Christ. I know that we are not able to do that on this side of heaven. Yet that is to be our goal, and we press forward daily, trying in our feeble ways to be more like Him. And if we apply those things we have already learned while continuing to seek the prize, we will someday cross the finish line directly into the waiting arms of Jesus!